Eurocontrol Term Loan Facility

The mandated lead arrangers HSBC, KBC Bank NV and KfW IPEX-Bank closed the first disbursement under a term loan facility amounting to EUR 272m for Eurocontrol on 30 June 2020. Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, is an intergovernmental organisation headquartered in Brussels. It was founded in 1963 and has 41 member states consisting of all European Union member states and neighbouring countries. On behalf of its member states Eurocontrol amongst other things is entrusted to invoice and collect route charges from airspace users such as airlines.

The Eurocontrol member states approved signing of a term loan facility to support the continuous operation of safe and effective air navigation services in the European network as part of a Covid-19 financial relief package. This term loan with a tenor until end of March 2022 aims to mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis in a number of Eurocontrol’s member states resulting from the decline in air traffic and the deferral of payment of route charges. The term loan facility enabled Eurocontrol to make optional financial liquidity available to these member states and their air navigation service providers.

KfW IPEX-Bank has acted as coordination and structuring agent and KBC Bank NV has acted as facility agent. As counsel Baker McKenzie Brussels advised the borrower while White & Case London and Brussels advised the mandated lead arrangers.

About HSBC:

HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 64 countries and territories in our geographical regions: Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, and Middle East and North Africa. With assets of US$2,918bn at 31 March 2020, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

About KBC:

KBC Group is an integrated bank-insurance group, catering mainly for retail, private banking, SME and mid-cap clients. Geographically, next to a presence, to a limited extent, in other countries, we focus on our core markets of Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Ireland.

Within KBC Group, KBC Securities is a financial services provider for several types of professional clients, each with distinct needs. Corporate clients come to us for state-of-the-art solutions and solid execution in equity and debt capital, M&A services, private fundraising, financial structuring and more. Institutional investors value our profound research insights and our unparalleled access to equity capital transactions and bond offerings in the Benelux market and beyond. Investment services offer easy access to a wide range of venture capital and private equity funds.